Monday, March 12, 2018

Swiss is the magic word.... Blansacar Swiss???

五星上将手表Blansacar CEO Series

This watch belongs to my brother-in-laws. It just happenstance that I helped him to get the watch repaired and serviced. He had sent the watch to numerous shops for repairs..... but after a few day it would stop running. So over a conversation during Chinese New Year, I offered him to send it for an overhauling services.

It is a Blansacar CEO Series that he bought many years ago. It is a homage to the Rolex President. Knowing that this watch is running on a super reliable work horse of ETA 2834-2, I really cannot foresee any major issue with the watch apart from needing some cleaning and re-oiling and possible some worn parts changing.....

I started researching into the brand Blansacar many years ago as its dial stated Chronometer. From my old research through internet search and conversation with watch retailers and salespersons, I found that this brand originally is based in Batu Caves area, Malaysia. But the brand has always emphasized on its Swiss DNA. Lately, I have seen the newer batch of Blansacar stated Swiss Made on its dial.

You need to comply with stringent requirements before being able to proclaim yourself "Swiss Made". These include the movement needs to be Swiss, the watch is cased in Switzerland and the manufacturer carries out final inspection in Switzerland. However, "Swiss Made" is often improperly used by foreign manufacturers to merely indicate that the movement is of Swiss origin.

Here is the Blansacar's fairy tales from its website.....Blansacar was founded in 1991 in the "watch making metropolis" of La Chaux-de-Fonds, by Mr. Michaël Vrolixs. Mr Vrolixs is the fourth generation of watchmakers family.

Blansacar claims to be an independent Swiss watch manufacturer. From what I see, its main market is in South East Asia, Asia and China. It uses the 5 Stars logo that shaped a Pentagon in the middle. Its Chinese name is "5 Stars General" or 五星上将, which sounded super elegant......

This watch has a 36mm diameter and with a thickness of 13mm. The case is said to make of 316L Stainless steel and is coated with white gold. It has a synthetic diamonds rim and sapphire crystal.

Its white dial is decorated with synthetic diamond hour markers. Below the Blansacar logo and wording, the word "SWISS" is in huge fonts. What is interesting is the wording above the 6 o'clock marker..... it is stated "Professional Chronometer", followed by another line "25 Jewels Automatic". Is it a real chronometer, fully certified???

Like Rolex, the crown is a screw in and locked type. The crown is signed with the 5 Stars logo.

The watch is accompanied by the President style bracelet. It is of solid link and is made of stainless steel.

The Clasp is signed also with the 5 Stars logo.

At the inner clasp Blansacar is also signed.

Another nice feature of this watch is the see-through case back with crystal glass.

For those that love to gamble, there are two groups of number, you can put bet on. 2834 and 8231. I believe the 8231 is the model number for this watch. 2834 stands for the ETA movement it used.

Blansacar has been proud of ETA movement it used. The rotor of the movement is signed Blansacar. and the movement used is plated in gold colour.

Swiss has been associated with fine watches and precision movement for centuries. So when it stated Swiss, the watch is viewed as of higher grade and can fetch a higher selling price............. I won't be surprise if Asian businessmen start setting up manufacturing plants in Switzerland........ With globalization, contract manufacturing and migration of workers..... I start wonder how many percent are truly Swiss????????

1 comment:

This "Swiss" mushroom brand reminds me a lot of Sacom watches (modern ones not the vintage ones), I have seen some with the Swiss Made stamped on the dial, but to be honest I doubt it has something Swiss on them:

http://www.sacom.com.hk/sacom/main/website/index.htm

Anyway, I hope not to see any "chinewiss" brand in the future, we have a lot of affordable good real Swiss Made watches, we don't need this apparently stolen valor companies posing as real Swiss companies.